In order to properly receive a block oriented digital communication signal, such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) or discrete multi-tone (DMT) that has been transmitted across a channel, and demodulate the symbols from the received signal, a receiver must determine the timing of the beginning of each symbol within a data frame. If the correct timing is not determined, sequences of symbols demodulated from the received signal will more likely be incorrect, resulting in the transmitted data bits not being correctly recovered.
Also, OFDM and DMT are often used in hostile environments such as networks deployed over home power lines where interference from narrow-band jamming signals can be problematic.
There is therefore a need for a computationally efficient system and method for detecting a time shift required for symbol synchronization of an OFDM or DMT signal that allows a simple means of eliminating narrow-band jamming signals.